Philly stars take off with airline: Virgin America touches down with its first flight to Philadelphia

April 10, 2012|Marc Graser | Variety

Virgin America touched down with its first flight to Philadelphia on Wednesday, celebrating the launch of its 17th destination with a surprisingly star-studded soiree at the Hotel Palomar that featured Terrence Howard, M. Night Shyamalan, "Gossip Girl's" Penn Badgley, Zoe Kravitz and Seth Green. Virgin chief Richard Branson was on hand to toast the kickoff at the event attended by local Philly athletes and celebs like "Top Chef"-testant Jennifer Carroll and series winner Kevin Sbraga, who danced to tunes spun by DJ Jazzy Jeff. Green, who flew on the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"-themed flight from L.A., with the FX show's star Glenn Howerton, model-actress Amber Rose and Virgin Produced's Jason Felts, praised the airline as a new platform for entertainment, especially for content producers, given that the comedian is producing original fare for the carrier's inflight entertainment system. "Airlines have a captive audience with each flight and Virgin is capitalizing on that by finding new ways to entertain them at a time when people are looking at so many different screens," Felts said.